How to use the speed ball

WHEN you think of boxing training, one of the most popular appliances in the boxing gym is a speed bag/speedball.

These are great and have lots of great benefits, so here are the top three. I’ve also made a video showing you how to hit it.

1. Shoulder and arm work out

Using a speed bag on a regular basis builds your shoulder endurance. As fighters, we have to keep hands up for long periods of time (unless you’re Naseem Hamed) so when doing this it really helps.

2. Eye to hand coordination

Boxers need to be quick and accurate. There aren’t many things that are better for this than using the speed bag, timing and rhythm are improved massively through repetitive punching with a speed bag.

3. Speed and reaction

I would say the best time to hit the speedball is at the end of your session when you are most tired. This will help build your speed and reactions, because if you can do this when you’re tired, then when you are fresh you are going to be even faster. Hitting the speed bag helps sharpen your reflexes too. When you get advanced on it, there are all sorts of different ways to hit it to keep the brain working – Vasyl Lomachenko even uses his elbows and spins around.

If you have never hit a speed bag before and you see one in a gym it can be pretty intimidating to begin with, so I created this quick video to show you how to simply start: